Kenya Power Confirms Widespread Blackout Across Nairobi, Coast and Mt Kenya
Key points:
- Kenya Power issued a customer alert on the evening of 29 July 2026 about a widespread outage.
- Affected regions included Nairobi, Coast, Mt Kenya and parts of Central Rift.
- Parts of North Rift and Western Kenya were reported still powered while crews restored supply.
Kenya Power confirmed a widespread electricity outage on Wednesday night, 29 July 2026, disrupting homes and businesses across Nairobi, the Coast, Mount Kenya and sections of the Central Rift Valley.
In a statement issued around 9:05 p.m., the utility said it was experiencing a major supply interruption affecting customers in those regions and that technical teams were working to restore power. Company and broadcast updates indicated that parts of the North Rift and Western regions continued to receive electricity while the bulk of the capital and coastal load centres went dark.
What customers saw
Social media and live television feeds filled quickly with reports of darkened estates in Nairobi and blacked-out coastal towns. Citizen TV, NTV and other stations carried the KPLC alert live as thousands of customers lost supply. Such multi-region events typically strain backup systems for small businesses, cold-chain retailers and households without generators or solar storage.
Kenya Power did not immediately publish a full technical root-cause note in the first customer alert, a pattern familiar from previous system disturbances. Past national or multi-region outages have been blamed variously on transmission trips, generation shortfalls or cascading protection events; until the company issues a post-event brief, the precise trigger for the 29 July incident remains for the utility to confirm.
Restoration
By early Thursday morning, follow-up local reports—including People Daily—said electricity had been restored nationwide after the overnight blackout, though isolated pockets sometimes lag after bulk supply returns. Customers were advised to check the MyPower app, USSD *977# and official Kenya Power channels for feeder-level updates rather than rely solely on social media rumours.
Recurring multi-county outages keep pressure on the utility’s reliability narrative as households and manufacturers count downtime costs. For now, the verified public record is the company’s own alert: a widespread interruption hit key economic regions on 29 July, with restoration work beginning the same night.
Sources: Kenya Power customer alert (29 July 2026), Citizen TV, NTV Kenya, Times Now, People Daily restoration report.
